Benny the Jet

 

Benny the Jet is a preamp pedal based on the Benson Preamp.

But is it just a preamp? Of course not!
In a nutshell, the Benny is a bit of a Swiss army knife that can cover a lot of ground, and if you find yourself in a tone pickle of sorts (get it?), the Benny can bail you out.

There is enough volume on tap to send any amp into overdrive, and the gain knob can go anywhere from light saturation to fuzz territory with the addition of a clipping/voice switch. Couple that with a controls for treble and bass, and you have a pedal that can work with just about any guitar and amp combo out there.

How I use it: Personally, I run my Benny as an always-on preamp before a clean Fender-style amp. The Heater is set at about 9 o'clock to give me some breakup, and the volume is just above unity to push the amp slightly. I use the tone controls to taste depending on what guitar I'm using.

Features:
- 9-18V DC operation
- Top-mount jacks (it is the way)
- Clipping/voice toggle switch: Middle = stock, Up = increased gain range, Down = mid-boost
- Controls: Volume (Smalls), Gain (The Heater), Treble (Squints), Bass (Ham)
- Treble control acts a low-pass/hi-cut filter, while bass controls acts as a hi-pass/low-cut filter
- Internal LED brightness trimmer
- Bias trimmers inside for the JFETs (leave them alone for stock settings - if you touch them, I can't help you get them back)